ContactOut vs Lusha
An independent, review-free comparison compiled by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Both products are profiled in full, and neither can pay for placement here.
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The short answer
Editorial assessmentContactOut compared with Lusha
Lusha and ContactOut are close on shape: extension-driven reveals, per-seat pricing, phones on higher tiers, and a strong compliance posture. Lusha leans toward sales teams with intent data and a polished CRM story; ContactOut leans toward recruiting with personal emails and ATS integrations. Choose by which side of the house is buying, because both will pass a security review and both charge per seat.
Choose ContactOut if
Recruiters and talent sourcing teams who work inside LinkedIn all day, need personal email addresses and mobile numbers to reach passive candidates, and value SOC 2 certification and ATS integration enough to accept a premium over email finders.
Choose Lusha if
SDRs and small teams that need reliable phone numbers and emails fast, without committing to an enterprise data contract.
Side by side
13 attributes| Attribute | ContactOut | Lusha |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Data | Data |
| Starting price | $0 (Free), then $49 per month (Email, global data), or $39 per month billed annually | Free plan (40 credits/mo); paid from $49.90/mo, or $37.45/mo billed yearly (Starter, 1 user, 400 credits/mo) |
| Pricing model | One-user subscription tiers with separate email and phone credit pools, separate export quotas, monthly fair-use caps set in the terms of use, monthly or annual billing, and a toggle that halves the price if you exclude US and UK data. | Freemium with per-plan tiers that each include a set number of seats; one credit pool meters reveals (1 credit per email, 5 per phone number), and Pro and Premium credit allowances expand on a slider. Yearly billing is 25 percent off; Scale is custom. |
| Free plan | Five emails, five phone numbers, and five exports per day at no cost. | 40 credits a month for one user with the extension, enough for a handful of phone reveals or 40 emails. |
| Free trial | The free plan serves as the evaluation path rather than a time-limited trial | No |
| Best for | Recruiters and talent sourcing teams who work inside LinkedIn all day, need personal email addresses and mobile numbers to reach passive candidates, and value SOC 2 certification and ATS integration enough to accept a premium over email finders. | SDRs and small teams that need reliable phone numbers and emails fast, without committing to an enterprise data contract. |
| Setup time | Ten minutes: install the extension, sign in, open a LinkedIn profile. ATS or CRM integration takes an hour or two and is where the value of the paid tiers actually lands. | Ten minutes to first reveal; an afternoon for CRM sync and team credit pooling. |
| Learning curve | Low on the extension, but the metering deserves an hour of attention before anyone starts working. Teams that do not understand that exports are a separate and much smaller quota than lookups will hit a wall in the first fortnight and conclude the product is broken. | The gentlest in the data category. |
| Platforms | Chrome extension, Web search portal, Gmail integration, ContactSheets bulk enrichment, REST API on the Team tier | Web app, Chrome extension, REST API |
| Compliance | SOC 2 certified, GDPR with opt-out and suppression support, CCPA | ISO 27701, ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA |
| Founded | 2015 | 2016 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States | Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Ownership | Privately held, lightly funded | Venture-backed (private) |
Strengths and limitations
ContactOut
Strengths
- Personal email coverage at roughly 150 million addresses is the standout asset and the reason recruiters choose it over sales-oriented vendors.
- Separate email and phone credit pools are more flexible than a single shared allowance, since running out of one does not block the other.
- SOC 2 certification is frequently the deciding factor in a corporate security review, and ContactOut is one of the few data providers here that states it.
- GDPR and CCPA compliance with opt-out and suppression support means objections can be applied as a list rather than handled record by record.
Limitations
- Three separate meters, lookups, phone credits, and exports, with only one of them prominent on the pricing page; the export quota is usually the binding limit and it is much smaller than buyers expect.
- The terms of use cap fair use at 2,000 email and 1,000 phone credits per account per month unless separately agreed, which is a real ceiling on any high-volume plan.
- The live prices sit under struck-through list prices of 99 and 199 dollars with no stated end date, so the cost could rise at renewal.
- Per-seat licensing makes it expensive for teams, at several times the cost of unlimited-seat vendors for the same volume.
Lusha
Strengths
- Best-in-class direct-dial accuracy in its price range, the defining differentiator.
- Frictionless extension workflow; fastest time-to-value in the category.
- Genuinely useful free tier keeps evaluation honest.
- Compliance certifications (ISO 27701, SOC 2) ease privacy reviews unusual at this price.
Limitations
- Database breadth and filter depth trail Apollo's at similar spend.
- Credit economics punish careless bulk reveals; phone credits deplete fast.
- The engagement layer is thin: automated email sequences exist on every plan, but calling, multichannel cadences and deliverability tooling live elsewhere.
- Intent/signal features are add-on-grade, not differentiating.
Pricing compared
ContactOut
One-user subscription tiers with separate email and phone credit pools, separate export quotas, monthly fair-use caps set in the terms of use, monthly or annual billing, and a toggle that halves the price if you exclude US and UK data.
- Free$0
- Email$49
- Email plus Phone$99
- Team and APIQuoted
At the email plus phone tier, 99 dollars a month against 600 exports gives an effective cost near 16.5 cents per exported contact, and considerably more if you never approach the quota. That is an order of magnitude above Hunter, Anymail Finder, or Icypeas. The premium buys three things those vendors cannot supply: personal email addresses at scale, direct dial numbers, and a SOC 2 certification that lets a security team say yes (Enrich and FullEnrich also state SOC 2). For a full-time recruiter whose placements depend on reaching passive candidates, the arithmetic works easily. For a sales team enriching known accounts, it does not, and the per-seat structure plus the export quota make it worse as the team grows.
Lusha
Freemium with per-plan tiers that each include a set number of seats; one credit pool meters reveals (1 credit per email, 5 per phone number), and Pro and Premium credit allowances expand on a slider. Yearly billing is 25 percent off; Scale is custom.
- Free$0
- Starter$49.90
- Pro$69.90
- Premium$399.90
- ScaleCustom
Priced above Apollo per record and below enterprise contracts, Lusha's premium buys dial accuracy where it pays for itself in connect rates. For email-centric volume it's the wrong spend; for phone-led motions it's often the highest-ROI data line after the sequencer.
Editorial verdict on each
ContactOut
ContactOut is a recruiting tool that happens to sell contact data, and it should be judged on that basis. Personal emails at scale, direct dials in a separate credit pool, an extension that works everywhere a sourcer works, campaigns and a dialler included, ATS and Recruiter Pro compatibility, and a SOC 2 certification no other vendor here publishes make it a straightforward purchase for a full-time sourcing desk. The pricing is where care is required: three separate meters, an export quota far smaller than the lookup allowance, a fair-use ceiling buried in the terms of use, advertised prices that assume an annual commitment, and per-seat licensing that compounds with every hire. Buy it for recruiting, buy the phone tier because the email tier misses the point, and read the quota clauses before you sign. For sales teams enriching known accounts, this is several times the market rate for capabilities you will not use.
Read the full ContactOut profileLusha
Best ValueLusha is the precision instrument of self-serve B2B data: the extension is still the fastest reveal workflow anywhere, and the dials are the ones that actually connect. It has wisely stopped pretending to be a platform, its future is being the trusted, certified accuracy layer inside bigger stacks, a role the Clay era rewards. Buy it for phones and speed; buy breadth elsewhere.
Read the full Lusha profileContactOut profile last reviewed 2026-09-26; Lusha last reviewed 2026-09-27. Pricing is compiled from public sources and can change without notice. See our methodology.
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Frequently asked questions
6 questionsWhat is the difference between ContactOut and Lusha?
Lusha and ContactOut are close on shape: extension-driven reveals, per-seat pricing, phones on higher tiers, and a strong compliance posture. Lusha leans toward sales teams with intent data and a polished CRM story; ContactOut leans toward recruiting with personal emails and ATS integrations. Choose by which side of the house is buying, because both will pass a security review and both charge per seat.
Is ContactOut or Lusha cheaper?
ContactOut starts at $0 (Free), then $49 per month (Email, global data), or $39 per month billed annually. Lusha starts at Free plan (40 credits/mo); paid from $49.90/mo, or $37.45/mo billed yearly (Starter, 1 user, 400 credits/mo). The billing models differ, so the entry price is rarely the whole cost. ContactOut pricing model: One-user subscription tiers with separate email and phone credit pools, separate export quotas, monthly fair-use caps set in the terms of use, monthly or annual billing, and a toggle that halves the price if you exclude US and UK data. Lusha pricing model: Freemium with per-plan tiers that each include a set number of seats; one credit pool meters reveals (1 credit per email, 5 per phone number), and Pro and Premium credit allowances expand on a slider.
Does ContactOut or Lusha have a free plan?
ContactOut has a free plan. Five emails, five phone numbers, and five exports per day at no cost. Trial terms: The free plan serves as the evaluation path rather than a time-limited trial. Lusha has a free plan. 40 credits a month for one user with the extension, enough for a handful of phone reveals or 40 emails.
Who should choose ContactOut?
Recruiters and talent sourcing teams who work inside LinkedIn all day, need personal email addresses and mobile numbers to reach passive candidates, and value SOC 2 certification and ATS integration enough to accept a premium over email finders.
Who should choose Lusha?
SDRs and small teams that need reliable phone numbers and emails fast, without committing to an enterprise data contract.
What are the best alternatives to ContactOut and Lusha?
SaaSTracker profiles 26 products in B2B Data Providers. The Summer 2026 awards in the category went to Apollo.io (Category Leader), Prospeo (Momentum), Exa (Innovation). Every profile is compiled from primary sources, so a shortlist can be built from pricing, limitations, and fit rather than from star ratings.
